Blum on Bridge Suit Overcalls and Preempts
	Over 15 years ago I had a heart attack. As you readers can tell it wasn't fatal. However, I made a pledge to Connie that we would take a month each year for an extended vacation. Because we enjoy Wales in the British Isles so much we seem to have passed through that area on about a third of our trips. An unusual town that I'm sure I have mentioned in past articles is called Hay-on-Wye, located sort of south central in the province. What makes it so memorable is that it is called the book capital of the world. I have often found bridge paraphernalia there long ago out of print. Last year I came across, among others, a recently-published book by Ron Klinger. "Bridge Conventions, Defences and Countermeasures" should be another winner by Ron. I shall summarize parts of this paperback of interest to most of you, but before I do please notice the alternate spelling of the word "defense" as the book was written in Great Britain by Klinger, a native of Australia. Before discussing defences of any type Klinger insists the defenders apply "The Suit Quality Test," which measures how strong a suit you hold. It determines whether your suit is strong enough to bid at a given level against pre-empts, weak twos, etc. In other words, is your hand strong enough to insist that the suit you hold should be trump? To apply the test, count the number of honors in the long suit and add to this the number of cards in the long suit. The answer is the SQ of that suit. For example holding Q8642 you have one honor plus five cards. The SQ is six. The SQ must equal or surpass the number of tricks you bid. Thus, the example is not good enough to bid at even the one level as you are claiming to be able to take seven tricks with a SQ of only six. Suppose instead your holding is KJ954. Two honors plus a five-card suit equals a SQ of seven. You may overcall this hand at the one level. Incidentally, a jack or ten is counted as an honor only when it is accompanied by a higher honor. For instance J85432 only has a SQ of six. An early chapter deals with weak two bids and proper defences against these annoying calls. Generally experts only use the majors as pre-emptive, saving the bid of two diamonds for more valuable uses. Of course using weak twos the opening call of 2 clubs is artificial announcing a strong, probably unbalanced hand. The reason for this is that is much easier for the opponents to bid two hearts or spades over two diamonds than it is to chance a three-level bid over one of the majors. Ron's requirements for the weak bid of either two hearts or two spades in first or second seat are a strong six-card suit, 6-10 hcps., seven or eight losers, no singleton or void, not two singletons, and no four card suit in the other major. AQJ642-6-432-984, 87-KQ9852-A72-63, 9-AKQ863-952-632, and QJ9863-64-KJ-K32 are four hands that qualify for the pre-emptive or weak two-bid opener. Minimum suit strength should be 3 hcps., and two honors. The following responses to partner's opener are acceptable. Raises are pre-emptive; a change of suit is forcing and denies support for partner's suit; any bid of game is to play; the bid of 2NT is used as a strong inquiry. Four clubs and four diamonds are called "splinter bids" which simply mean you hold a singleton or void in that suit. In addition you should have at least three-card support in partner's major suit bid setting that suit as trump and a hand that can produce five winners. After the 2NT inquiry the opener has several ways to answer. One way is to bid your singleton if you have one, bid 3NT with no singleton and a maximum or bid your suit at the three-level with a minimum. Most popular is a convention called "Ogust." Three clubs is a minimum with one top honor; three diamonds shows a minimum with two top honors; three hearts is a maximum with one top honor; three spades shows a maximum with two top honors. Bid 3NT holding AKQ642 or better in the major suit.